Is Reese Witherspoon a "witch"?
Before I get into the subject line of this daily blog, let me say something else. Today is NOT Star Wars day. Star Wars, now known as Episode IV, opened on May 25th. The fact that the phrase "may the force be with you" sounds a lot like "may the 4th be with you" has no connection to the film franchise. Real fans think all this fuss is silly. I celebrate May 25th.
Sometimes tuning into talk radio on the drive home from trivia is a bad idea. Other times it is a good idea. Last night it was an interesting topic. The host was postulating that when Reese Witherspoon tried to blame her horrible behavior with that cop in Atlanta on the booze, it was revealing her true nature. That she's really a witch (I'm sure he wanted to say the same word but with a "b" in the first position) and every bit of her sugary, syrupy sweet disposition is a facade.
It may be. At heart she may be a mean-spirited, ugly person. But I don't buy it. We judge people based on how they behave, not how they may wish to behave. I see things I'd love to have when walking in stores or malls, but they are beyond my price range. I'd be lying if I said that there isn't a small part of me inside that, for brief instants, wants to just take the items. I don't though. Nor would I even if I was drunk. I know this because back in the days when I did drink alcohol, I did get drunk. Never made me steal though.
I wonder how many times Reese Witherspoon has been drunk and not behaved badly. Do we judge a person based on one isolated incident of behavior when no one is harmed, no property is harmed, and the person accepts the consequence of their action? I don't. She got drunk, she got mouthy with the police officer and she was guilty of what police officers call "contempt of cop". So she got cited, pled no contest and paid a fine. As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it. She is NOT a witch.
Oh, and for John Phillips, the fill-in talk radio host who raised this issue, calling her a starlet is insulting. You don't refer to Academy Award winning actresses as starlet. She's a bona fide star. A member of the "A-list". Someone who can ''open' a film. Just saying.
I got an email from Britney Spears this morning. As I sat there deciding whether or not to open it, since there's no real reason that she'd be writing to me (unless she wanted me to step-in and replace her father as her conservator), I came to the conclusion that this is just another way to try to get spam read. It failed.
I don't like the fact that the L.A. County Sheriff's Department made a clerical error that allowed a murder suspect to be released from jail. But humans are imperfect, and I'm sure they work very hard to keep such things from happening. What really bothers me is that they waited a month to notify the public that this had happened. If they'd managed to recapture him immediately, we would have never heard about this.
So we are forced to wonder, does this happen a lot and we just don't hear about it because they manage to get them back before they harm anyone else? Will it take the spectre of a Willie Horton like incident where a murderer gets released due to a "clerical error" before we insist that the Sheriff allow the light of transparency to be directed at jail operations? I'd hate to think someone has to die for that to happen.
Donald Trump is successful (and no, he didn't inherit most of his money as his detractors like to claim, although he was definitely raised with gold rather than silver spoons). But he's also childish, and easily provoked. He went and made an issue of Jon Stewart's birthname, and when the comedian responded by claiming that Trump's birthname was "F**kface von Clownstick", the Donald exploded. Maybe the Donald should spend some of his money and hire someone to handle his Twitter account so he doesn't send out so much dumb stuff.
You want a good reason to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for "detainees" to get the Republicans in Congress to sign off? Here's one. It is costing the U.S. $900,000 per year per detainee. That's roughly $150 million per year for the 166 detainees there. It won't balance the federal budget deficit, but it would be a step in the right direction. Then if we could trim some of the pork barrel spending Congress won't stop engaging in, we might be able to cut our deficit from the trillion dollar level down to the half trillion level. That would be real progress.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1493, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.
On this date in 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in "New Netherland".
On this date in 1776, Rhode Island becomes the first colony to renounce allegiance to King George.
On this date in 1814, Napoleon arrives on Elba to begin his exile there.
On this date in 1904, the U.S. begins construction on the Panama Canal.
Also on this date, Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce. Without that meeting, Rolls-Royce would almost certainly never have built even one luxury car.
On this date in 1932, Al Capone begins serving an 11 year sentence for tax evasion.
On this date in 1953, Ernest Hemmingway wins a Pulitizer Prize for "The Old Man and The Sea".
On this date in 1970, National Guardsmen open fire on demonstrators at Kent State University, killing four.
On this date in 1979, Margaret Thatcher becomes first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
On this date in 1988, the PEPCON explosion rocks Henderson, NV.
On this date in 1989, Oliver North is convicted of three crimes. Convictions were later overturned on appeal.
Famous Folk born on this date:
Henry I of France
Horace Mann
Alice Liddell (the model for Alice in Wonderland)
Dory Funk
Dr. Stanley Biber (he made the dreams of many men come true, by making them into women).
Maynard Ferguson
Hosni Mubarak
Katherine Jackson (money-grubber extraordinaire)
Dick Dale
Robin Cook
George Will
Richard Jenkins
Darryl Hunt
Pia Zadora (is she still famous?)
Randy Travis
Will Arnett
Laci Peterson
Erin Andrews
Lance Bass
Rory McIlroy
Movie Quote of the Day comes from 1980 film "The Blues Brothers" when Jake and Elwood stop in at the Soul Food Cafe:
Mrs. Murphy: Don't you "Don't get riled, sugar" me! You ain't goin' back on the road no more, and you ain't playin' them ol' two-bit sleazy dives. You're livin' with me now, and you not gonna go slidin' around witcho ol' white hoodlum friends.
Matt Murphy: But babes, this is Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers.
Mrs. Murphy: The Blues Brothers? Shit! They still owe you money, fool.
Jake: Ma'am, would it make you feel any better if you knew that what we're asking Matt here to do is a holy thing?
Elwood: You see, we're on a mission from God.
Mrs. Murphy: Don't you blaspheme in here! Don't you blaspheme in here! This is my man, this is my restaurant, and you two are just gonna walk right out that door without your dry white toast, without your four fried chickens, and without Matt 'Guitar' Murphy!
Tax Tip of the Day:
If you have a Flexible Spending Account through your employer, there are a few things you can expense that you may not be aware of. Medical mileage. Parking fees for doctor visits. Massage therapy if prescribed by a health professional.
Also, remember that unless you are 65 or older, this year (2013), the itemized deduction for medical expenses (medical, dental and so on) is more limited than in the past. Before, only those expenses that exceeded 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income were deductible. That's been increased to 10% of AGI for 2013.
Sometimes tuning into talk radio on the drive home from trivia is a bad idea. Other times it is a good idea. Last night it was an interesting topic. The host was postulating that when Reese Witherspoon tried to blame her horrible behavior with that cop in Atlanta on the booze, it was revealing her true nature. That she's really a witch (I'm sure he wanted to say the same word but with a "b" in the first position) and every bit of her sugary, syrupy sweet disposition is a facade.
It may be. At heart she may be a mean-spirited, ugly person. But I don't buy it. We judge people based on how they behave, not how they may wish to behave. I see things I'd love to have when walking in stores or malls, but they are beyond my price range. I'd be lying if I said that there isn't a small part of me inside that, for brief instants, wants to just take the items. I don't though. Nor would I even if I was drunk. I know this because back in the days when I did drink alcohol, I did get drunk. Never made me steal though.
I wonder how many times Reese Witherspoon has been drunk and not behaved badly. Do we judge a person based on one isolated incident of behavior when no one is harmed, no property is harmed, and the person accepts the consequence of their action? I don't. She got drunk, she got mouthy with the police officer and she was guilty of what police officers call "contempt of cop". So she got cited, pled no contest and paid a fine. As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it. She is NOT a witch.
Oh, and for John Phillips, the fill-in talk radio host who raised this issue, calling her a starlet is insulting. You don't refer to Academy Award winning actresses as starlet. She's a bona fide star. A member of the "A-list". Someone who can ''open' a film. Just saying.
I got an email from Britney Spears this morning. As I sat there deciding whether or not to open it, since there's no real reason that she'd be writing to me (unless she wanted me to step-in and replace her father as her conservator), I came to the conclusion that this is just another way to try to get spam read. It failed.
I don't like the fact that the L.A. County Sheriff's Department made a clerical error that allowed a murder suspect to be released from jail. But humans are imperfect, and I'm sure they work very hard to keep such things from happening. What really bothers me is that they waited a month to notify the public that this had happened. If they'd managed to recapture him immediately, we would have never heard about this.
So we are forced to wonder, does this happen a lot and we just don't hear about it because they manage to get them back before they harm anyone else? Will it take the spectre of a Willie Horton like incident where a murderer gets released due to a "clerical error" before we insist that the Sheriff allow the light of transparency to be directed at jail operations? I'd hate to think someone has to die for that to happen.
Donald Trump is successful (and no, he didn't inherit most of his money as his detractors like to claim, although he was definitely raised with gold rather than silver spoons). But he's also childish, and easily provoked. He went and made an issue of Jon Stewart's birthname, and when the comedian responded by claiming that Trump's birthname was "F**kface von Clownstick", the Donald exploded. Maybe the Donald should spend some of his money and hire someone to handle his Twitter account so he doesn't send out so much dumb stuff.
You want a good reason to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for "detainees" to get the Republicans in Congress to sign off? Here's one. It is costing the U.S. $900,000 per year per detainee. That's roughly $150 million per year for the 166 detainees there. It won't balance the federal budget deficit, but it would be a step in the right direction. Then if we could trim some of the pork barrel spending Congress won't stop engaging in, we might be able to cut our deficit from the trillion dollar level down to the half trillion level. That would be real progress.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1493, Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.
On this date in 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in "New Netherland".
On this date in 1776, Rhode Island becomes the first colony to renounce allegiance to King George.
On this date in 1814, Napoleon arrives on Elba to begin his exile there.
On this date in 1904, the U.S. begins construction on the Panama Canal.
Also on this date, Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce. Without that meeting, Rolls-Royce would almost certainly never have built even one luxury car.
On this date in 1932, Al Capone begins serving an 11 year sentence for tax evasion.
On this date in 1953, Ernest Hemmingway wins a Pulitizer Prize for "The Old Man and The Sea".
On this date in 1970, National Guardsmen open fire on demonstrators at Kent State University, killing four.
On this date in 1979, Margaret Thatcher becomes first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
On this date in 1988, the PEPCON explosion rocks Henderson, NV.
On this date in 1989, Oliver North is convicted of three crimes. Convictions were later overturned on appeal.
Famous Folk born on this date:
Henry I of France
Horace Mann
Alice Liddell (the model for Alice in Wonderland)
Dory Funk
Dr. Stanley Biber (he made the dreams of many men come true, by making them into women).
Maynard Ferguson
Hosni Mubarak
Katherine Jackson (money-grubber extraordinaire)
Dick Dale
Robin Cook
George Will
Richard Jenkins
Darryl Hunt
Pia Zadora (is she still famous?)
Randy Travis
Will Arnett
Laci Peterson
Erin Andrews
Lance Bass
Rory McIlroy
Movie Quote of the Day comes from 1980 film "The Blues Brothers" when Jake and Elwood stop in at the Soul Food Cafe:
Mrs. Murphy: Don't you "Don't get riled, sugar" me! You ain't goin' back on the road no more, and you ain't playin' them ol' two-bit sleazy dives. You're livin' with me now, and you not gonna go slidin' around witcho ol' white hoodlum friends.
Matt Murphy: But babes, this is Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers.
Mrs. Murphy: The Blues Brothers? Shit! They still owe you money, fool.
Jake: Ma'am, would it make you feel any better if you knew that what we're asking Matt here to do is a holy thing?
Elwood: You see, we're on a mission from God.
Mrs. Murphy: Don't you blaspheme in here! Don't you blaspheme in here! This is my man, this is my restaurant, and you two are just gonna walk right out that door without your dry white toast, without your four fried chickens, and without Matt 'Guitar' Murphy!
Tax Tip of the Day:
If you have a Flexible Spending Account through your employer, there are a few things you can expense that you may not be aware of. Medical mileage. Parking fees for doctor visits. Massage therapy if prescribed by a health professional.
Also, remember that unless you are 65 or older, this year (2013), the itemized deduction for medical expenses (medical, dental and so on) is more limited than in the past. Before, only those expenses that exceeded 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income were deductible. That's been increased to 10% of AGI for 2013.
posted by me at 8:46 AM
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